Stacey Abrams’ Rebuttal Of Trump’s State Of The Union Address Drew Rave Reviews

The last time the Democratic party responded to a Donald Trump speech the optics were easily lampooned and the message fell flat. On Tuesday night, with Trump finally allowed to give his State of the Union speech after the temporary end to the partial government shutdown, the Democratic party changed things up a bit.

In early January, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer stood side-by-side to deliver a rebuttal to Trump’s insistence that congress funds a border wall on America’s southern border. But social media lampooned the speech and the words the Democrats delivered in response to Trump were largely lost in the immediate aftermath of the night. Their stonewalling of Trump and his eventual caving on the shutdown did follow, however, and it seemed unlikely that the party would make the same mistake when offering a rebuttal to Trump on Tuesday.

This time, the Democratic party chose Stacey Abrams to give the party’s official response. Abrams, who narrowly lost a bid for governor in Georgia last November, offered a passionate rebuke of Trump’s various policies and stressed the importance of expanding voting rights and other initiatives on Tuesday.

"Let’s be clear: Voter suppression is real," @staceyabrams says in the Democratic response to the #SOTU. "From making it harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling places to rejecting lawful ballots, we can no longer ignore these threats to democracy." pic.twitter.com/dbVWot4tCR